The question which ended my last post was answered helpfully at the weekend when I was walking into Oxford to meet Penny and saw a brilliant flutter of wings in the bright sunshine. It was a Red Admiral which swooped around a few times and then returned to the brick wall where it had been basking - yes, genuinely basking in the warmth of a December morning, a rare interlude between recent rain and fierce cold.
The butterfly was so content that it allowed me to get up close and take the second photo before I left it to carry on sun-bathing. Back home in the roofspace where I have been sorting piles of old papers, a third Buttoned Snout put in an appearance. However dark and cobwebby, it's definitely their kind of place.
I'm not sure what the equally contented-looking fly is in the picture above but there's all manner of insect life amid the rafters. Here are some old wasps' nest, lifeless thank goodness, built by a Queen who must have hibernated somewhere comfy in the insulation fluff.
The warmer spell encouraged me to put the moth trap out and I was rewarded with a nice clutch of December Moths and one very gracefully patterned Winter, Autumnal or November Moth which obligingly perched on the trap's transparent cowl so that I could photograph it from both on top and below.
My proceedings were watched carefully throughout by a Robin but he didn't manage to pounce on anything while I was looking the other way.
